An award-winning talk show host famous for saving marriages puts her own under the spotlight. What she finds in the harsh glare will change everything.
Dr. Rebecca Matthews is the queen of daytime talk. Her fairy-tale marriage, nine Emmys, and twelve years as the top-ranked show prove there’s nobody better at fixing a broken relationship. But when her ratings slip and her biggest sponsor bolts, the network pressures Becca to spice things up. The suits want their money shot. Making matters worse, Becca uncovers a troubling secret about her husband, Ryan, thrusting her into a crisis that threatens not just her marriage, but her show and career.
Never one to shy away from adversity, Becca decides to make her boss happy and repair her marriage on her hit show. As she navigates this uncharted territory, more devastating discoveries come to light, testing her resolve and forcing her to question everything she believes in. Desperate for time and space to recover, Becca retreats to the one place she finds sanctuary: Her beach house. There, she makes a series of discoveries and decisions that will alter the rest of her life.
In this story of redemption and the relentless pursuit of happiness, Becca must learn who she is and what she wants and whether the money shot is worth the cost.
Review:
Not my usual genre–not even a hint of romance for the MC, once her life starts imploding–but I’ve really liked books by the author’s other alter ego (Adrienne Giordano), so I thought why not?
Like the in the author’s romantic suspense books, the hits just keep coming for Dr. Becca Matthews. (Fortunately–?–for Becca, there’s no bullets or murders along with them. But also no hunky guys coming along to save the day, alas.) She starts the novel on the top of the world–a hit TV show, a 26-year-old marriage to (she thinks) a great guy, and owns two beautiful homes, including one on the beach. Sure, her job adds its own share of stress–ratings are shaky, making her executive producer and the network marketing department pressure her to change her show’s tried and true formula, and the episode of the show she’s taping at the beginning of the book packs an unexpected wallop. Literally. But overall, things are good.
Until they’re not.
First, Becca finds out one hard truth about her marriage. Then another. And another–it starts to feel like it’s never going to end, that just as she adjusts to one bombshell, another one will hit. And yeah, that pretty much is the case, right through to the last 20ish percent of the book. But along the way Becca manages readjusts her way of thinking, finds some friends she didn’t expect (but desperately needs!) and reevaluates her life.
It ends up happily, though I doubt if someone had told Becca a fraction of what was going to happen to her beforehand she never would have believed them. She has a totally different life at the end than what she started with.
I’d absolutely read more from this version of the author–the story kept me turning pages. Becca’s a highly sympathetic character, and even though there were some parts that stretched credulity a bit, I really enjoyed the story overall. I especially liked the found family that she ended up with and the way the people she encountered along the way had her rethinking the assumptions she’d made about other strong women in her industry.
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.